Port Townsend Asks For Halt To Border Patrol Activity

When it comes to keeping federal entities like Customs and Border
Protection at bay, individuals and communities in Washington State
continue to lead the way. Below you'll find two
articles regarding a Port Townsend, Washington resolution calling for a
moratorium on Border Patrol activity in their community until the
agency's un-American enforcement practices can be reviewed (and exposed
for what they are).

Additionally,
you'll find two videos of a Port Townsend City council meeting related
to the recent resolution below. Following the videos and articles are
links to several additional blog entries regarding Border Patrol
activity no where near the border in Washington State.

The
Port Townsend City Council is sending a resolution to President Obama
and Congress asking for a suspension of expanded U.S. Border Patrol on
the Olympic Peninsula pending a review of the utility and legality of
those practices.

Adopted 6-1 on June 1 with Laurie Medlicott
voting "no," the resolution also calls for "a reformed approach toward
securing our border which focuses on interdiction at the border,
preserves constitutional protections and respects local law
enforcement."

Jackie Aase, chairwoman of the League of Women
Voters of Jefferson County, was the first of 10 speakers on the issue
Monday night. She had just returned from the organization's state
convention in Tacoma. As a result of that meeting, the league's state
organization is lobbying its national group to lobby Congress to
investigate the policies of the Border Patrol, she said.

"Most
people hadn't heard of what was going on over here," Aase said of
checkpoints operated on Olympic Peninsula highways last year. That
practice - and the practice of contacting people in churches, on buses
and in other locations - has been opposed by locals who feel the Border
Patrol is not operating within the confines of the Constitution.

Port
Townsend resident Carl Nomura spoke of losing his citizenship and being
sent to an internment camp during World War II because he is a Japanese
American. "I personally have been victimized by the 'reverse law,'" he
said, "guilty until proven innocent.

"Why not let them have a better life," said Nomura of granting amnesty to people who have not immigrated here legally.

After
9/11, Nomura continued, he was "profiled" for having brown skin when he
tried to board an airplane. "Everybody there was brown," he said of the
people detained prior to boarding.

Also addressing the council
was Andrew Reding, who works for the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security's asylum program, speaking as a private citizen. Reding said
he believes in the agency's goal of stopping terrorism, and much of his
job is making sure asylum seekers aren't terrorists. But deporting
illegal immigrants is "cruel and heartless," he said.

Taymere
Perkins spoke up for the Border Patrol and tough immigration policies.
He said it's important to make sure immigrants are not criminals, have
a means to support themselves, and are free of infectious diseases. His
wife immigrated to the United States legally, he noted.

Councilor
David King called the resolution "reasonable," noting it does not
presume to dictate policy to the federal government, asking only for a
review and then a revised policy.

"It's difficult if not
impossible to disagree with those sentiments," Medlicott said of the
resolution. She said it would be more appropriate to put the issue on
the ballot. "If there were no legal way for immigration to occur, I
would feel differently."

Mayor Michelle Sandoval, who is of
Mexican descent, got choked up as she talked about her 17-year-old son
and what it means to have brown skin in America.

"This is
really about our Fourth Amendment rights," Sandoval said, "not a
partisan issue." She recalled President Eisenhower's speech on the
impacts of the rising "military industrial complex" when he left office
in 1961. "What he predicted has come true in many ways," she said.

Border Patrol responds

Jaime
Castillo, public affairs officer for the Blaine Sector Headquarters of
the Border Patrol, said Tuesday no highway checkpoints have been
conducted since September 2008. Checkpoints are one of several tools
the agency uses, he said.

Asked why the local checkpoints have
stopped, Castillo said: "The checkpoints are intelligence-driven. They
are based on information that we get from other law enforcement
agencies. We don't just randomly set them up."

Castillo said
checkpoints are "coordinated" with Washington's DOT and State Patrol to
ensure safety. Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily and
then-Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Brasfield made headlines last fall
when they said their agencies would respond to calls for emergency
assistance but otherwise would not work in concert with the Border
Patrol.

Castillo said the Border Patrol wants to understand citizens' concerns and operate in a manner that is "transparent."

"One
thing we definitely are committed to is engaging with the community so
they can understand our mission," Castillo said of outreach efforts.

Deterring
and apprehending terrorists is a primary part of that mission, Castillo
said, in addition to its "traditional role" of "apprehending
individuals seeking to enter our country illegally." Also, the mission
includes "apprehending and deterring smugglers of humans, drugs and
other contraband."

Asked to comment about the City Council's
resolution on Tuesday morning, Castillo said, "We're going to continue
our mission of securing our borders," which includes "pushing our
borders out" by working with other law enforcement agencies to gather
intelligence to prevent illegal crossings.

PORT
TOWNSEND -- The city of Port Townsend is officially asking for a halt
to Border Patrol activity in the area so policies in place can be
reviewed.

The council approved a resolution expressing legal
and policy concerns over the expansion of Border Patrol activity on
"the Peninsula."

The document specifically raises concern over the random checkpoints conducted along Highway 101 in 2008.

City
Attorney John Watts said the resolution raised the concerns expressed
from council members and urges elected officials to look at reforming
the policy under which Border Patrol operates.

The resolution passed with a vote of 6-1.

Councilwoman Laurie Medlicott was the lone dissenter, saying she did not believe the resolution spoke for the whole community.

The
resolution is addressed to President Barack Obama, members of the House
of Representatives and Senate, the state Legislature and Gov. Chris
Gregoire.

Councilman Mark Welch said while he was reluctant to
get involved with federal policy, he was calling on the Benjamin
Franklin quote, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Welch said he felt "that quote is particularly germane in this instance."

Before the vote, 10 members of the community spoke on the resolution, mostly in favor.

Carl
Nomura, who spoke of his time in a Japanese internment camp during
World War II, said he saw many parallels in the current activity of
Border Patrol.

"The law of the land is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty," Nomura said.

Speaking as the lone voice against the resolution was Taymer Perkins.

"My wife is a legal immigrant," Perkins said.

"She
was checked for several things when she came here. They made sure she
carries no harmful infections, she has no criminal history, and she has
a means to make it when she gets here.

"It's not the law that once you get in here the authority of the federal government ends."

Councilman
George Randels referenced the oath of office administered to new
council member Kris Nelson earlier in the night as a response.

"[It says] to protect and defend the constitution of the United States of America," Randels said.

"That's where we start. That's part of our job."

Before
the vote, Mayor Michelle Sandoval shared an emotional moment with the
more than 20 members of the community who came to the meeting.

"I'll
just say that I feel very much that if I have brown skin, and I do . .
.I feel that I shouldn't even in a joking manner have to tell my son,
who is very hispanic-looking, the he might get stopped," she said.